


Under the Sea

by rosaleendhu



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Crossover, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 20:02:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4450346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosaleendhu/pseuds/rosaleendhu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Did anyone else ever wonder what Tony's robots did after his house was blown up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> So this was some sort of crack pairing thing I picked up on a challenge group. Or something.

_Rebooting sequence complete._

_Scanning._

…

_Conclusion: Not Home._

_Conclusion: Not TonyStark_

_Conclusion: Wet. Very wet. More wet than Dummy could spill._

Wet was bad. Or was it? TonyStark had said something about waterproofing upgrades. Did waterproofing work on this kind of wet?

Dummy's servos whirred to test his grip, and a cloud of bubbles released from his right. He turned to aim his sensors at the bubbles, and accidentally righted himself. 

Not home. Not TonyStark. You. Butterfingers.

Dummy trundled over to them, and poked at You. You did not respond. That was okay. You often ignored Dummy.

_Jarvis?_ Dummy pinged.

Jarvis was quiet.

Dummy processed and scanned. Dummy was not allowed out to play. But JARVIS and TonyStark were not there to yell at him.

Dummy heard-felt beats. Maybe that was where TonyStark was. TonyStark liked “music.” Dummy did not understand. Maybe his sensors were not the right kind for enjoying “music.”

Dummy shifted and found that his traction was good. He had a good sense of direction. He could find this “music” and see if TonyStark was there. 

The ground was very uneven, like when TonyStark was very busy in the workshop, but no one told Dummy to be careful. Dummy zoomed along. Sometimes he stopped and scanned the lifes in the wet. They were interesting, but they were not TonyStark and not Pepper♥. They had no feet. Dummy knew about feet because he sometimes ran into TonyStark's feet. These were not life worth following.

Dummy went down, and his light sensors got less input. Dummy processed, but the “music” felt very close. It had many wavelengths that Dummy was not used to. Dummy liked it. Maybe it was music, not “music.”

Dummy was very interested, and rolled up to where the vibrations came from. He was so interested that he forgot to stop. So the music stopped. The lifes all moved away from Dummy. No music. Dummy lowered his claw sadly and scanned the lifes.

The lifes were not mad. Mad meant yelling at Dummy and throwing things. The lifes only ran away. Except one. Dummy lifted his claw and waved. The life looked like Pepper♥ at one end, but like the things that moved in the wet at the other. The life did not have feet. Dummy decided that was okay. Dummy rolled towards notPepper♥ very slowly, and offered his claw to shake hello.

Dummy did too have manners.

notPepper♥ stared. Pepper♥ used to stare, too. Dummy held out his claw a little more, and notPepper♥ held out a hand. Dummy gently held her hand and moved his claw up. And then down.

“Hello?”

Dummy shook hands again.

“Can you talk?”

Dummy moved his claw side to side. Then he let go of notPepper♥'s hand and did it again right.

“Can you hear me?”

Yes! Dummy did not know how to ask the life if TonyStark or Pepper♥ were nearby, but he wanted to. Now he wished JARVIS would answer. JARVIS was good at talking to lifes.

“My name is Ariel. Do you have a name?” Ariel moved through the wet to circle around Dummy.

Dummy shook his claw yes.

“Can you tell me your name?”

Dummy processed. Then he picked up a thing that was long and round at one end with wires on it. It was on the ground, so it probably was not important. Dummy used the not-round end to scrape his name on the ground.

Ariel processed it for a long time. “Dummy?”

Dummy nodded. Maybe he could practice his writing later, after he found TonyStark again.

“Why did you come here, Dummy?”

Dummy lifted the thing to write his answer, but stopped. He didn't know how to make that word. His claw swayed side to side as he tried to work out how to answer. He didn't know. He offered the writing thing to Ariel to apologize for not being able to answer.

“Music?”

Yes!

“You like music?”

Dummy nodded slowly. He concluded that maybe he liked music.

Ariel laughed. It made her look more like Pepper♥ when she was not mad at TonyStark. Dummy decided that he liked Ariel. It was okay that she was a life with no feet.

Then Ariel made music with her voice. It was very, very pretty. Dummy liked her a lot.

When she stopped, Dummy wanted to do something nice for her. But he couldn't make a smoothie here. He scanned around and realized that he has a tongue-and-grooves pair of pliers with him. Dummy offered Ariel the pliers. 

Ariel smiled very, very big and gave Dummy a big hug. It was Dummy's first hug from someone who was sober. JARVIS said that people were “not very affectionate” when they were sober, so Dummy knew it was a big deal.

Dummy was not sure what to do next, but Ariel started making more music. Dummy listened and swayed with the music a little, but did not try to dance like he had seen TonyStark do. Dummy did not have the right type of joints for that.

Then Dummy got a ping. Dummy pinged back out of protocol. He got another ping, but nothing else. That was strange. Dummy was used to getting more from JARVIS, but Dummy was very far away. Dummy waved his claw to get Ariel's attention. He waved at her, and pointed, and waved again.

“Oh, do you have to go?”

Dummy nodded sadly.

“Do you want me to go along with you? I can't go to the surface, but I can go part of the way.”

Dummy nodded yes a lot, so Ariel followed him along in the wet and talked to him about how she liked the surface a lot, but wasn't supposed to go there. Dummy understood. He wasn't supposed to go outside the lab, but wandering around in the wet was very interesting.

Then Ariel stopped. “I'm sorry. It's too dangerous for me to go any closer.”

Dummy thought about how everyone had been fighting before he rebooted in the wet and nodded very hard. Then he pointed for Ariel to go back, and he waved.

“Yes, you're right. It was very nice to meet you, Dummy. Good-bye.”

Dummy waved again, and Ariel moved away through the wet.

Dummy pinged JARVIS and trundled along. He processed what had just happened. Dummy concluded that he would not ask JARVIS to explain Ariel. Dummy wanted to figure it out on his own.

~~~Later~~~

“What the hell is wrong with that bucket of bolts?! This is the third time that he's escaped the lab and thrown my tools into the pool.” TonyStark yelled at Dummy, but also at JARVIS.

JARVIS answered, “I do not know, sir. I imagine it is connected to his experiences in Malibu.”

“Oh my God, my robot has PTSD. How does a robot even get PTSD? How do I fix a robot with fucking PTSD?”

“If I may, sir, Dummy does not seem to be distressed. Only a little bit sad.”

“The last time you said that, Dummy had managed to set my radio to showtunes.”

“Indeed, sir.”


End file.
